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The room had smelled of mold and cigarettes.
Then the room faded away and left him falling into darkness. Everything fell away and all that remained was his panicked thoughts, jumping into action despite all previous reassurances. His senses were gone, but he could tell that he was falling.
Perhaps he was falling to his death, everything having caught up to him. No matter where he was falling, it was the most serendipitous he had ever been. The lack of everything. It was horribly and wonderfully peaceful.
Then a ball slammed into Touya Todoroki’s face.
He flinched, sitting up off of the grass that he had glued himself to. Natsuo and Fuyumi were toppling over with laughter a couple of meters away, and Shouto was in the grass beside him with a devious smile on his face.
“That’s what happens when you fall asleep while we’re playing!” Natsuo shouted between laughter.
“I didn’t fall asleep!” he yelled back.
Fuyumi had fallen into the grass, “You totally did!”
Shouto nodded, a wide grin quickly spreading. Touya shook his head as if in disbelief, despite his own smile obviously showing. He picked up the ball that had bounced beside his head, chucking it at Natsuo. It hit him right in the side, pushing him down nearly onto Fuyumi. She screamed, pushing him away with an air of mirth and annoyance, aimed mostly at Touya.
“That was your fault!”
“Oops!” he mocked.
The youngest of them finally laughed beside him, and Touya raised his eyebrows. He stood up, towering over the small boy. An evil grin spread over his face, and he picked up Shouto.
“What are you laughing at?” he joked.
The younger boy squirmed between hiccups of laughter, Touya carrying him over to their siblings. Once he had gotten over to them, he threw Shouto at Natsuo. It probably wasn’t the safest, but it had them all laughing hard enough to cry. Besides, he had to get revenge somehow. He had a large feeling the child who had been beside him was the reason he was nursing a slight comical headache.
They continued to mess around, even when clouds roiled into the sky and their stomachs rumbled. Whatever game Natsuo had wanted to play was forgotten by their own shenanigans, most of which the older two started, despite both of their original negligence to even come outside.
Playing with them all was fun, but it wasn’t exactly the best thing to do anymore. Fuyumi could say she loved her brothers as much as she wanted, but she was fifteen and probably wanted to do stupid teenage girl things. Of course, she regarded him as a stupid teenage boy, so he knew she probably thought the same of him.
Yet, eventually, Natsuo had stood up and proclaimed his hunger. Fuyumi swiftly agreed, grabbing the ball and the mysterious toy truck that had found it’s way outside. Touya pushed himself off of the tree he had been leaning against, tired of standing with the chaos going on.
They all turned when an engine could be heard, and they quickly perked up at the sleek black car that turned into the driveway. Touya knew he should be happy, and he was, but some sort of horrible thing unfurled inside of him. His painful quirk lapped at his fists for a moment, before he deactivated it and stumbled back in surprise.
When he looked back up their dad was waving at them, still in his hero costume. A smile crossed his face when he saw all four of them, and he waved an arm to come inside.
Natsuo and Shouto ran forward, but Touya could only stare after the man for a moment. He wasn’t sure what had come over him, but he was working rather hard to keep his quirk at bay.
“You okay?”
It was gone.
Just as quick as it had come, that dark feeling had vanished at the concerned voice of his sister. He relaxed his hands, and looked down to see no signs of burns popping up.
“Yeah, just think i spent too much time out here with you losers,” he scoffed.
“It wasn’t even that long!”
“As if you didn’t get bored.”
“I love my siblings, thank you very much,” she stuck up her chin, but no actual anger was in the motion.
“Come on!” she shouted again, running after the other two.
He shook his head, reaching up to scratch the strange itch not far beneath his eyes. The soft skin surprised him for a moment, before he finally ran forward after the other three. He was likely just more tired than usual, Fuyumi had been making him study for their damned exams all day, despite being a grade below him.
Fuyumi had left the door open for him, and he tossed his shoes on the ground beside the others once he was inside. Excited voices could be heard from the kitchen and dining room, and he smiled at the calm voice of his mother— why was he relieved to hear her calm?— while she had the others set the table.
Perhaps it was good he had taken so long to get in, because it meant that he got to get out of setting the table for once. He walked into the dining room, sitting down smugly before Fuyumi walked in with a few plates. She narrowed her eyes at him, setting his napkin down rather passive aggressively. He couldn’t resist laughing, even though she held it in once their mom walked in.
“It’s gonna rain soon,” Natsuo announced as he walked in.
“Good thing you’re all inside, then,” their mom responded.
Shouto came in, and then their dad. Touya still couldn’t explain the strange feeling from earlier, but he didn’t like it. He didn’t want to feel extreme anger towards his dad, so he wouldn’t. It had come out of nowhere, anyways.
“Yeah, you could smell the rain,” Fuyumi said.
Shouto wrinkled his face, “You can’t smell rain.”
“You definitely can, it’s kinda dewey. I like it.”
“What are we talking about?” their dad asked, seemingly confused.
“Rain.”
“Nothing important,” Touya snarked.
“Rude.”
“Today at soccer someone sprained their ankle,” Natsuo said one the conversation fell quiet.
Their mom put her hand to her heart, “Oh goodness, are they okay?”
“Yeah, he’s fine, it meant we got off practice early though.”
“Have I ever sprained something?” Shouto asked.
“I don’t think any of us have,” Fuyumi said.
Their dad shook his head, “Natsuo, you injured yourself in soccer once. Was that a sprain?”
“I don’t remember.”
“No, we just get burns,” Touya said.
He got a large amount of disappointed looks for that one. He wasn’t even wrong, but apparently they didn't want him to joke about that. It was still funny.
“I hope I never sprain anything,” Shouto said quietly.
Their dad said, “Well, if you do, we’ll make sure the pain goes away very quickly.”
“But we’ll make sure you never sprain something, anyways,” their mom reassured.
“What kind of conversation is this?” Fuyumi half-laughed.
“I bet you hear lots of shit like this from the kids you babysit,” Touya said.
“Language.”
“Don’t use words like that.”
Both of their parents jumped in to say something before Fuyumi could respond. She rolled her eyes, though the motion was probably aimed at Touya, rather than their parents.
“I don’t hear that stuff at the dinner table, though.”
“Who cares if we talk about injuries at the table?”
“I dunno, it feels like some sorta bad luck.”
“Course it does.”
“Okay,” their dad put a hand out as if separating them.
Touya rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t even do anything,” Fuyumi muttered quietly.
Their dinners certainly weren’t the most functional things, but they worked well enough. Natsuo turned them onto another conversation, and it wasn’t long before most of them were finishing up their food. Every time Fuyumi mentioned studying Touya felt the urge to gouge his eyes out, and despite exhaustion when Shouto mentioned Mario Kart he was tempted to agree to get out of studying.
Unfortunately, their parents said no to that option, specifically because of the damned exams coming up. The younger two didn’t even have any exams, and if they got to play then Touya would have wiggled his way in with them. Instead, he was stuck sat at a desk with textbooks that weighed more than him.
Thankfully, his younger brother was his favorite.
He heard the door slide open not long after he’d begun studying, and when he turned he saw the white hair of Natsuo walking in. Instantly he slid onto the floor, pushing shut the textbook as he did so.
“Why do you have to study so much?” his brother asked, picking up an old toy from the shelf and sitting down.
“Because Yumi does and now I have to, too.”
“That’s dumb.”
“And she doesn’t even like studying, either, she’s just too paranoid to fail. I don’t care, so I don’t get how that means I have to as well.”
“I mean, you probably don’t want to fail.”
“Who cares?”
Natsuo grinned, “Okay.”
Touya sat up sharply, “Wait, no, mom will kill me, passing is important or whatever.”
“Who cares?’
“I hate you,” Touya laughed.
The sun was going down through his window, and the smell of dinner was fading from the house. His head felt fuzzy, and the part of him that had listened to the mothering voice from both females in the house was kicking in. He probably needed to take something, but while he complained to Natsuo he couldn’t find the effort to get up.
His limbs felt a little numb, and the more he droned on the more tired he felt. Eventually Natsuo was the only one talking, with him providing occasional grunts of agreement or disagreement.
He was probably sick, and he knew that. There was no other explanation for how he felt, and he was even going to blame his strange anger towards his father on that. Yet, as he thought about it, the anger returned.
There was also a bit of anger towards Natsuo, and a lot towards his other siblings and mom. He curled his arms up to his face in confusion, because he didn’t want to feel like this towards people he loved. He was definitely very sick, and something was very wrong. His dad was a hero, and he was strict, but he was their dad. He was a pretty good one, too. Their mom was the most supportive person ever, and Fuyumi had inherited that and a whole lot of kindness. Shouto was only eight, and he was the most well behaved baby brother ever. Natsuo was like Touya’s best friend, even though he was eleven and annoying. He actually cared what Natsuo thought of him.
Natsuo had stopped talking.
He tried to turn his head, but it hurt. All he could see was that the door was open and Natsuo was gone, and he heard voices rising from another room. It felt like he was using his quirk, burning away at his skin and everything around him.
He couldn’t move at all, only lie as if he was in his grave. No sound came out when he opened his mouth. Shouto was crying somewhere, he thought he heard Natsuo and Fuyumi crying, and his parents were screaming.
Then everything gave way, and Touya Todoroki fell into darkness.
He realized hazily that it was the second time this had happened, but he had no clue why. All he had done for weeks was sit at home and go to school, repeating that everyday. Except, that wasn’t quite right, because he had ran from a store clerk when he stole medical supplies. He had also slept in an alley.
But that didn’t make any sense, because he had a loving family and they’d never let him need to do those things.
Except he didn’t have a loving family, because they shouted and fought and he was supposed to beat All Might, but those selfish bastards had stolen that from him, just as they’d forced it onto him.
His senses returned, and Dabi sat up sharply on the uncomfortable cot he was laying on. The smell of mold and cigarettes was strong.
The woman with the quirk had her hands at her sized, exhaustion beading beneath her eyes, and the cash he had given her was gone.
“Welcome back, I hope that was suitable for the amount that you paid.”
He fisted his hands, trying to stop them from trembling. His mind felt like it had been split in two, but that pain from minutes before was gone. Except, that pain was very real, and it was of burns he had already faced.
“Why would you do that,” he said through grit teeth.
He didn’t want to know what a happy family was like. He didn’t want to be thrown in an illusion where he was blind to how awful the world was, one where he saw the life they could have led. It was all Endeavor’s fault, and he didn’t want to see a glimpse of what his life would be if it weren’t for his awfulness. He saw it, and it was taken way before he could even enjoy it.
“You paid me,” the woman said, “My quirk is to show your greatest wish, and you paid for three hours. It’s not my fault if you pretend you didn’t like it, and may I remind you that there are no refunds.”
He swung his legs over the cot onto the side she was on. She used her foot to push back the stool she was in, staring at him firmly with a look that only a coward would have in such an area of town. He felt embers on his skin as his anger burned to life, and he pushed himself up on shaky legs to walk towards her.
“That wasn’t what I wanted to see.”
She stood up, but he surged forward and grabbed her by her shirt. Her eyes were wide and scared, and he had no idea how she wasn’t dead yet if she always got like that.
“My quirk doesn’t lie, now please let me go.”
“I wanted to see him dead. Not some sort of fake happy illusion!”
“You wanted that, whether you think so or not!” she shouted at him, pushing him away.
He nearly toppled over, catching himself on the cot. He stopped holding himself back and let the flames engulf the scratchy fabric, taking the mattress next.
He didn’t even think to find his cash, and it took only ten minutes before the entire unit was reduced to ash.
It was only once he had walked onto the street outside that he realized it was the first time he killed someone. He was thankful for the alley that provided privacy for the next ten minutes he spent retching at the realization.
He was going to kill Endeavor.
His stupid siblings that never gave a damn about him weren’t going to get in his way, and if he could use them to hurt the flame hero, then he was going to.
He hated the illusion, and everything that it showed him, but it had finally allowed to resolve on what he was going to do.
The lives of a few people he didn’t care about were nothing compared to the prospect of hurting Endeavor.